There are a variety of situations in which microscopic samples excised from a bigger specimen require transfer under special conditions for further examination. Examples can be found in a variety of research fields, such as biotechnology, the semiconductor industry and other areas.
In the semiconductor industry and related areas, the in-situ lift-out method of TEM sample preparation in a focused ion-beam instrument (FIB) has become the method of choice for failure analysis during the last decade. During in-situ lift-out in the FIB, a tiny wedge is excised from the sample, attached to a grid for a transmission electron microscope (TEM), and transferred to the TEM for inspection. Depending on the particular specimen, these samples may require transfer in vacuum or in an inert atmosphere, such as argon.
There are systems in the art for the transfer of biological samples which require special conditions, for instance, samples taken from a frozen substance. However, some samples require not only temperature control, but react with the air and require transfer and handling in a controlled atmosphere such as an inert gas or other gas not reactive with or damaging to the sensitive sample.
There is a need for an integrated system for easy and secure transfer of TEM samples, or any other sensitive samples, to a final destination in an appropriate inert atmosphere. The system disclosed here is a low-cost solution for integrating the transfer process from the FIB to the TEM or any other analytical instrument.